Talk:Atheism

This page is factually incorrect. Atheism is not a positive statement of disbelieving in gods, but a descriptor that has been used equally effectively against Christians to the effect of 'otherizing' and otherwise marginalizing groups. It simply means that someone does not make a positive claim of belief in a particular god. In fact, agnosticism also does not make the positive claim that gods exist, placing it squarely in the realm of 'atheism' from a technical perspective.—The preceding unsigned comment was added by Greggles (talk • contribs) 14:54, 13 September 2010 .

It looks like Andrew has already done some editing since your comment.

I'll adjust to reflect some of the varying usages of "atheism," including that Christians were considered atheists by the Romans for not believing in any of the vast pantheon of Roman, Greek, and other deities. However, the general idea that atheism is a lack of belief in the existence of any deities accurately describes the common use of the terms "atheism" and "atheist" in the majority of non-technical applications. This is not really the proper forum for discussing the wide variety of thought on the matter. I also will add, however, some external links to fuller discussions of atheism, such as Wikipedia or other encyclopedic descriptions where a fuller discussion would be more appropriate.